Friday, September 26, 2008

Stunt?

So make no mistake: John McCain did not “suspend” his campaign. He justturned a national crisis into an occasion to promote his campaign. It’s becomejust another political stunt, aimed more at shoring up the Senator’s politicalfortunes than the nation’s economy. And it does nothing to help advance thiscritical legislation to protect the American people during this time of economiccrisis.

* McCain's "Straight Talk Air" landed at National Airport just after noon,and McCain's motorcade sped toward the Senate. But by then, senior Democrats andRepublicans colleagues were already announcing that a deal in principle had beenreached. [WaPo,9/25/08]*

“Despite McCain's claim that he's put his campaign on hold, two of themdirectly attacked Barack Obama in political terms on television this morning.”[TPM,9/25/08 ] *

“Readers in Iowa and Wisconsin emailed to say that they saw seen McCain adson the air this morning, though he's said he's taking them down.” [Politico,9/25/08]*

“Aside from the trip to Washington, the suspension seems not to take infundraising or surrogates attacking Obama on television, and the ads haven'tcome down all that speedily. A reader reports seeing on in the Tampa area at12:45 this afternoon.” [Politico,9/25/08 ]

McCain Campaign Offices Continue Normal Campaign Activity.* “The HuffingtonPost called up 15 McCain-Palin and McCain Victory Committee headquarters invarious battleground states. Not one said that it was temporarily haltingoperations because of the supposed "suspension" in the campaign. Several, infact, enthusiastically declared the continuation of their work. Others hadn'teven heard that the candidate for whom they were devoting their time hadofficially stopped campaigning.” [HuffingtonPost, 9/25/08 ]*

“So, I called as well, and was told specifically that "volunteer activitiesare still ongoing" and that people are welcome/encouraged to come in and do so.”[RaisingKaine, 9/25/08 ] Governor Palin Held a Press Avail and Campaign Rally.

Those are just a few examples. Smith hypothesizes that poor communication in the McCain campaign is responsible rather than an intention to decive.